Explained! Chicken coop ventilation and drafts

[@terywetherlow7970]

Living in New Mexico, we have sand everywhere....I look forward to that video!!

[@aftonhalters]

First off, I don't smoke. But unfortunately, my dad did. He was an electrician, and what he would test with smoke movement taught me a lot. And it won't take but minutes to see where the smoke goes (girls out of course) to check the flow, where it flows to, and where it settles ect.. It makes for a good visual ;)

[@thefeatherbrain]

Yes, that's an excellent idea and a great video idea!

[@Jason-un9ps]

Yup, you can also light a candle then blow it out and see where the smoke goes

[@Zenfit2000]

Very helpful We are using creek sand and it is great. We also have a power acinfinity fan that is automatic and move air.

[@winniecash1654]

I love the visual! Very helpful.

[@kimlucero4630]

This video is a year old so maybe you did a video on sand in the coop. If not, I would love to see one. I’ll look through the rest of your videos to see if you did post one. I just came across your channel two days ago and am just exploring all of your valuable info. Thank you so much for sharing!!

[@djanarchy508]

Great info The sand part good info for me

[@CityChickAtl]

Great video! Great way to explain ventilation!

[@PLJS2018]

Looking for ideas!! Thank w!

[@sarahraedougherty1610]

great video, will read your article! our coop the chicken go all the way up to the rafters... should i close that off so i can place vents where they cant go over? this coop came with the home.. its huge but needs vents badly

[@thefeatherbrain]

Sounds like a good place to put vents. If your chickens are still flying up there when the weather cools, it would be a good idea to block off the places up there where they can roost so they aren't exposed to drafts.

[@kellyburlarley2121]

What kind of sand do you use and do you deep litter

[@janzoo1111]

Good information

[@lawrenceelliott2016]

I am planning to build a chicken coop for ventilation I was thinking of Eve vents and a working Cupelo would that be Sufficient in cold winter months

[@magnuman008]

i have a small coop and it was poorly designed with the roosting bars basically right over the pan floor. Knowing that chickens like to roost above the ground, I installed roosting bars that are elevated off the ground but now the chickens are higher up and in line with 2 vents. Their Run is also attached to the coop and i have made storm windows out of 12 MIL clear vinyl to eliminate any moister in there run. So my question is can I leave their door open and 1 vent directly in line with the door open and close the 2 vents that are closer to their roosting bars.

[@thefeatherbrain]

You can try it, but definitely see if drafts are coming through. If you clean the poop out of your coop every day, you may be able to get away with just having one vent (or door) open at night - whichever one doesn't result in drafts. If you can't eliminate drafts during the cold months, you may need to lower their roosting bars again, unfortunately.

[@magnuman008]

@@thefeatherbrain I use deep litter method and just turn the bedding over every other day. With the mounted storm windows there is very little drafting. But I’ll make sure to monitor during below freezing days.

[@thefeatherbrain]

@@magnuman008 That sounds like a great setup! :)

[@LetitBrew]

How much higher than the chickens' head must the ventilation be?

[@magnuman008]

@@thefeatherbrain thank you. The storm windows don’t completely seal the run. There are 1/2 inch gaps at the top to allow air circulation. I leave there coop door open always so they can come and go as the girls please. We had a week of -14 degrees and the girls did fine. No condensation in their coop. No frost bite. They are very animated and comfortable. I turn the deep litter over daily and monitor. So currently there are no openings in line with where the girls roost at night. The coop door is off to the side and I made a 4 inch circular vent up high across from the door to allow venting.

[@davidwilson7131]

Good job Featherbrain! I would like to know more about sand bedding. Where can you buy it and how often do you change it out? Thanks. David

[@thefeatherbrain]

Thanks, David. I'll make some more videos on sand at some point, but here's a blog post I wrote that answers your questions - www.thefeatherbrain.com/blog/sand-chicken-coop-bedding

[@davidwilson7131]

@@thefeatherbrain read entire article on sand bedding. Very thorough. As a former teacher I can see it was well researched and well written too. Thanks so much.

[@clp6743]

Where can I find the video on ways of how to put vents in?

[@dawnlee6058]

I have an exhaust fan in one gable and a vent at the other gable. I have been keeping the fan on a lower setting during the winter with the windows shut. The windows are not that much higher than the roost so I didn't want a cold breeze to come in around their heads. Is this okay? My coop is a 10 x 10 shed converted. They have a poop tray with a mixture of Sweet PDZ and Stall Dry. I am using industrial hemp on the floor. I clean the poop tray daily. The coop seems to be nice and dry. Am I doing this right?

[@thefeatherbrain]

It sure sounds right, Dawn, but ask yourself these questions: Do you feel drafts in the coop (where your chickens are roosting)? Do you smell any ammonia? Does your coop stink at all? I find my coop stinks first thing in the morning because my chickens have been pooping all night. If I used Sweet PDZ and Stall Dry as you do, that might not be the case. But after an hour or so after my chickens are awake in the morning, my coop doesn't smell at all. If your coop seems dry, doesn't have ammonia, and doesn't stink terribly, then you are doing it right.

[@homewatcherhousewatcher9482]

Thanks

[@krzysztofrudnicki5841]

What do you think about fresh air chicken coops made by Dr. Prince T. Woods? Its type of chicken coop with open front covered with wire mesh and other wall sealed.

[@dougroberts3643]

This is what I'm trying to research. I'm having trouble finding information about it. Very few videos on YT with the open air coops. From what I've heard so far, it's the healthiest option for the chickens

[@winniecash1654]

Would it protect them enough in colder climates where there can be cold wind or snow?

[@dougroberts3643]

@@winniecash1654 I have a friend in Michigan that has a roost on the outside of his barn. He also has an opening for the chickens to come into the barn to roost if it's to cold. It's their choice. He said they always choose to stay on the outside roost no matter how cold it is. Hope this helps

[@winniecash1654]

@@dougroberts3643 that's great to know, thanks for sharing!

[@SOJAProductions]

Is it ok to put one vent under the chickens? Not the two like in the model but only one?

[@tazblink]

Just built a coop with gabled roof I have soffit vents on both sides of the coop or I think you call them wall roof gaps. I also have a ridge vent about 3 inches wide plus the walled roof gap about 3 inches wide on both sides of the coop. Here is my question how low below the soffit vents (the lower set of the vents) should the roost bars be? Do you want the air flow as far away from there heads as possible or 1 foot or what? I can adjust the roost bars at any hight I just need to know how far below the vents the bars should be? Know one talks about this stuff and I have been trying and trying to find out. The ridge vent is at 5'10" the soffit vents are 4'4" so 52" I was going to set my roost bars at 29 inches that would put the lowest clearance at 23 inches from the top of the roost bar to the lowest vents is that enough? Thanks for any help you can give me this has been the info I can't seem to find.

[@thefeatherbrain]

Hi taz man - I'm a bit backed up on comments and questions right now and will put a video together on this topic eventually, but I do realize your question is time-sensitive. So the short answer: in general, the higher the vents are above their heads, the better. And 23" is enough. I have a blog post that talks about minimum requirements with an annotated photo here - www.thefeatherbrain.com/blog/how-tall-should-a-chicken-coop-be

[@tazblink]

@@thefeatherbrain Thank you so much for the fast reply. Scrambling to get the coop complete before the wife and I freeze to death. Its in the 30's now and we are just getting the last bits done before our girls move into there new home. Read your blog you have a lot of the answers I could of used over the last few months. Wish I found you earlier. Hens are living in a shed coop I through together Intel I got the coop compete, kind of a Carilina coop deal but insulated. Thanks again you really helped me out I have been winging it and guessing the whole build.

[@shadyfieldhomestead1974]

I live in South Alabama where it gets really hot during the summer and our winters for the most part are kind of mild. Recently our winters have been a little harsher during the evenings and we even had a few nights get down in the 20's. Anyway, I was thinking of installing a couple of exhaust fans where on one side I had a fan positioned low pulling air in and on the other side, the fan positioned high pulling air out. Is that something that would work? I'll have other regular passive vents up hight the sizes are 4"x16". If I did put the fan low, in the winter time would I need to close that fan and vent up?

[@thefeatherbrain]

That sounds like a good setup with the fans pulling fresh air in and pushing stale air out. If the fan makes the coop feel drafty, you would need to turn it off in the winter. Test it and see. Close any vents that bring drafts across your chickens in the winter. If doing so makes the coop too stale, add more vents up high if you can.

[@MosaicHomestead]

I live in the tropics, its very hot here, there is no winter here, I don't want my chickens to cook, im doing research now because my coop will be built out of block and steel reinforced concrete for hurricane season, should I put lower vents?

[@thefeatherbrain]

I'd put as many vents as I could in there both high and lower if the weather is very hot and make it as open as possible - of course only if you're able to safely close it up during hurricanes. I have zero experience with that so sorry I can't be more helpful.

[@MosaicHomestead]

@@thefeatherbrain You were very helpful, thanks, all open areas will be properly secured once its built to protect the birds from Hurricanes, I will also have a off grid fan and light to Light up and circulate air when they are shut in during a hurricane.

[@thefeatherbrain]

@@MosaicHomestead Sounds like an awesome coop!!!

[@MosaicHomestead]

@@thefeatherbrain I might call it the chicken bunker, Hurricane Maria killed a lot of my birds, we got hit by Fiona but all my chickens survived, I got them running free so they can hide from any danger.

[@thefeatherbrain]

@@MosaicHomestead So sorry to hear your birds fared poorly during Maria. We have to worry about forest fires here, but thankfully no hurricanes. Hopefully your new "bunker" setup rocks! Will you be putting a video of your new coop on your KZbin channel when you finish? Or as you build it? I'd love to see it!

[@michellewillis3304]

I am new to raising chickens. Our chicks are 1 week old. I would like to learn more about the sand bedding in the coop. We have converted a dog house into the coop. We are in the process of putting vents in the peaks at both ends. Will this be adequate?

[@thefeatherbrain]

Hi Michelle, Thanks for letting me know you'd be interested in a future sand video. If you need some help on that in the meantime, please see my blog post here - www.thefeatherbrain.com/blog/sand-chicken-coop-bedding I have no idea about your converted dog house ventilation - there are so many variables that go into ventilation, including how many chickens you have and how big your dog house is. I do have a couple of articles that describe these variables in detail and everything else you need to know to answer your question: www.thefeatherbrain.com/blog/how-much-coop-ventilation www.thefeatherbrain.com/blog/chicken-coop-ventilation These articles will really help. Bri

[@danielwagner6290]

The reason ventilation is so hard to talk about all in one video is because there are so many variables that change things a lot, even your budget. Ventilation can't be standardized for everyone in every state. I don't like videos that don't mention what state they have there chickens in. This matters a lot as well. Summer ventilation is why different than very cold winter windy ventilation. Your weather in your state or area all year long may not or will not be the same as someone else in another state because of the location. In summer heat I want a breeze to cool me off and shade with lots of water. Chickens do too. In winter I want a place that is warm and safe and comfortable from the elements outside. Chickens do too. So, study and experiment with the ventilation in your coop in summer and winter. You will find the best way for your area. Having vents that can close or open will be best for adjusting summer and winter ventilation. Just think if you didn't have heat for your homes, how would you stay warm? How many windows or vents would you have? When ice forms on the walls and ceiling in the cold of winter from your breath, how would you address that without external heat? Having heat in your home changes everything in a home. When America had wooden cabins in the early years, what did we? We had very dangerous fire places in the house. If you were careless you burned your house down and learned. In most cases that never happened and most people were responsible with fire. Heat lamps or similar devices is not fire. I had chickens for many years and I used heat lamps and lights in the coops for years and they never burned down. That's all they had back than, nothing like what they have now which is much better. If your a mindless person than you shouldn't use any heat because you will probably mess it up. Heat lamps were a life saver in my area Wisconsin for the chickens. Chickens will never live in the wild here. That's why we don't have any chickens in the wild here. What does that tell me? Chickens need heat or at least very good shelter to survive our winters. If they could survive here than there would be chickens in the wild here with so many farms that have chickens not locked up. Chickens need help from the elements with food, water and shelter. Featherbrain is right. People project a lot of wrong thinking on there animals because it's simpler or easier to do so. They give us so much. Why not help them any way you can?

[@thefeatherbrain]

Well said, Daniel. I've made many mistakes with my chickens because I took advice from people who lived in different conditions than where I lived. For example, everything I read and watched said not to bother insulating your coop - it's not needed - and so I didn't initially. Well, I live in an area with no shade which means the sun beat down on my coop and the temperature inside was around 110+ degrees when summer hit. My chickens would have died had I not done anything. Insulating my coop has kept it AT LEAST 10 degrees cooler in the summers. The people who were all saying not to insulate lived in areas with lots of trees that were providing great shade and keeping the coop temperature tolerable. Thanks for your input on heat lamps as well. I do wonder if the plethora of heat lamp fires we hear about today are because so many chicken keepers are "mindless." So many of us who keep chickens nowadays don't have any experience with heat lamps or anything else used on traditional farms. If I lived in a very cold climate and heat lamps were my only option, I would definitely learn everything I could to use them safely.

[@danielwagner6290]

@@thefeatherbrain Well said as well !

[@jzmn0033]

Gear blog post 21 really good and accessible methods

[@carriekimble2994]

how do u keep from losing heat in the winter since heat rises? Of course, the chickens are roosting up high also. Thank you.

[@tommyabernathy9880]

Naygative pressure 🤔

[@thefeatherbrain]

I see your point, Tommy. I'm considering the normal air pressure outside as a baseline. Therefore, where the air hits the coop the pressure is positive (relative to the baseline), and then the pressure is negative (relative to the baseline) on the far side of the coop. :)